Even after debuting as an artist through my first exhibition in Germany in 2011, I had been active without my personal website for a long time. As I supported my husband, who came to study abroad, raised my son, and  I barely had time to draw and prepare for an exhibition, so I could not afford my own website and manage it. Then, in 2013, when I moved to the United States, I created a personal website in Weebly. Even then, I couldn't manage and update the newly designed website that I needed some time to settle in and adjust to it after moving New York, so I left it alone. As I continued to draw, the drawings piled up, but the text on the website remained the same. However, I was keeping applying for an open call to get an exhibition opportunity. Above all, I joined a local art association as a member and registered as a local artist on the website. Hence, there were visitors to my website. 

 Long Island, where I live, faces Manhattan to the west and stretches narrow and long to the east, hence Long Island's name. Located on the island's eastern tip, Montauk (Lighthouse) is a sunrise spot and a major tourist attraction. Long Island was a haven for industrial magnates, poets and artists. Today, it has become a space for escape from everyday life for discerning urbanites, families, and people seeking fun.

​As Long Island is an island facing the long sea, there are many beautiful beaches nearby. A longtime resident said, "If you live on Long Island and can't swim, it doesn't make sense. My parents threw me into the sea when I was a kid. And they just watched to see if I could swim or not."
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 Instead of pigeons, people may find more seagulls, and strong salty winds are always expected. My hometown is Jeju Island, the largest island in Korea, located in the South Sea. Additionally, another island in Japan, where I lived when I was little. That's why I'm used to and familiar with this kind of sight. During the eight years I lived in Germany, I had no chance to see a view of the sea. So, returning to Long Island, looking out at the ocean, I realized that the sea I met again had many colors, feelings, and shapes. 

 ​ The sea near my town here is dark blue with coarse pebbles. However, there are many swamps so that you can see many types of sea creatures, and the clear sky reflected from the swamps is beautiful enough to admire. And the nearby Stony Brook Beach is a beach with many pebbles where you can see a small house showing something of loneliness. If you take a walk here, you will become a philosopher by itself.

 ​ As you know, 2020 was a particularly turbulent and anomalous year. We've learned in our life that we can't even get out of the beach. Everyone feels the ocean on the beach, gets sunburned, tans coolly, and swims in the rippling sea—all of which has come to a halt worldwide. ​Last year I went to the beach for the first time on the day the lockdown was lifted, and the fact that I was able to go to the beach gave me cheers of gratitude. I attended two graduation ceremonies within the month of June, and prepared one birthday party, but I never felt tired. Yesterday, I attended my eldest son's high school graduation ceremony, and everyone said that they were so grateful and happy to have the graduation ceremony.  It is enough to be grateful to see students shouting and throwing their caps like this. 

 We got away from the local beach for a while and went to a more distant beach. In fact, it was a place recommended by an acquaintance in the past as an excellent beach to take small children. I kept procrastinating and couldn't go, but last week I decided to give it a try. The name of the beach is Veteran Beach. We arrived at the beach after a 50-minute drive east of our town. It is a small, quiet, and clean beach. ​The beach in our neighborhood has a lot of pebbles, so it's hard for children to walk in aqua shoes without being serious, but the sand here is very soft, as shown below. 

  Every time you go to the beach, you need to know what the beach permit is, whether the beach is private or public, how much guests can enter, where to pay for parking, where to buy tickets, and so on. ​We asked these things at a nearby office. The manager of the office allowed us to stay for about 30 minutes although this beach is private. ​It was a mistake that I started without knowing it well on the Internet because of a recommendation from an acquaintance, but I was able to enjoy the beautiful sea privately for this brief time. 

We drew on the soft sand of a quiet sea. 

 ​Yesterday my daughter, who just turned 5, asked me how to draw a rose. I have been drawing, but the difficulty is when I have to teach my child how to draw because it is challenging to express small parts intricate and detailed with children's small hands. Above all, children still lack the training to distribute the screen and draw objects correctly. So, sometimes it's big, sometimes it's small, and they cry because they can't put everything they want on one screen. I find it so cute just looking at it.
So I tried to summarize realistic roses with only the features so that young children could draw them. 

 It's graduation season, so I think parents will be very busy. In my case, As soon as the second daughter's graduation ceremony is over, I must prepare an older son's prom party and graduation ceremony. Working as an artist while supporting families and raising children is a hardship that I cannot share anywhere. If I have enough time, if I have two hours a day to immerse myself in something and complete it, I think it will create a better environment for making something. But to me, two hours a day, just for me, is a luxury like an unnecessary excessive accessory. So I try to earn time to work day by day with a desperate heart like a soldier who goes to war. But after fighting this kind of war several times, it seems that I have my trick. So, I tend to allocate my time much more easily than before and work. For example, in a month with many busy events, such as June, I usually choose small tasks to draw at once. So yesterday I painted an orange rose. Yesterday's work was significant because I had to draw roses one by one on paper whenever I had free time to open a paint flower shop later. 
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 Today, I would like to show you the procedure I drew with pictures briefly. 
 Orange is a vibrant and fiery color that represents life, energy, passion, and excitement. "Orange roses are a symbol of energy and enthusiasm. These bright flowers will immediately raise the energy in a room. You might find yourself more motivated." (Posted in History, Hunter's Special, Orange rose, Symbolism)
  I chose the orange color to convey bright vitality, energy, and joy to someone. And I sketched with a 2H drawing pencil, as shown below. The tip is to draw without making a mistake once drawing because it uses a rough texture and paper color as the background without painting the background separately. If I make mistakes often and leave traces of pencil lines and erased marks, not painting the background becomes meaningless and messy. Therefore, I had to concentrate all my attention when drawing the sketch. I drew a rose, but the flower part was as beautiful and vivid as possible, and the stem was twisted and natural. Because in the philosophy of my paintings, beauty, and the pain to create that beauty always coexist. The shadow beneath the twisted stem is the good life we have always imagined.

 ​ Then, I took out a watercolor pencil and drew the second sketch as shown below. ​At this time, the already calculated shadow is added.

 ​ Then, I put water on the brush and arranged the color of the rose step by step.

 ​Next, considering the light coming in as a highlight, I mixed acrylic paint with white, white, and orange and then painted the bright part using a light orange color.

 ​ Now, as the next step, I used red and dark orange to arrange the dark shades as shown below.

 ​I painted the floor of this orange rose. First, touch the bottom with acrylic using a flat brush.

  Then, carefully sprinkle thin, shiny shards on it. At first glance, I felt like a part of the reflected light of the orange roses. ​It is from the hope that our lives will be able to twinkle innumerable in the countless ups and downs.

 ​Today, I attended the graduation ceremony for my daughter's Pre-K. Yesterday we received the latest updated notice from the school district stating that it is okay to hold a large gathering, not wearing a mask, and not keeping 6 feet apart. Compared to the situation last year where no event could be held, I am grateful for today's extraordinary situation. Before the ceremony, my husband, who was sitting next to me, asked me to look at the sky for a moment. ​It wasn't even after it rained, but I can see a rainbow around the bright sunlight.